During the summer of 2003, and following the fall of his regime, the American troops led Saddam Hussein out of a deep pit with a thick beard and white face. On December 30, 2006 Saddam Hussein was executed, and the populations hoped that what happened to Iraq's dictator would constitute a lesson to the other leaders sitting on their chairs and governing the people with axes, restraints and gunpowder. During the year of the “Arab Spring” in mid January 2011, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fled the wrath of the demonstrators in Tunisia to Jeddah, after he had governed the country for around 23 years with an iron security fist. At the time, it was said that another tyrant collapsed to constitute yet another lesson for the Arab regimes. And on January 25, 2011 Egypt rose to topple Hosni Mubarak on the “Friday of the Departure” organized on February 11, 2011 after he governed his country under the rule of the emergency law for 30 years. Today, he is being tried in court and held accountable by the people before the entire world. During the “Arab Spring,” the people learned new descriptions in the dictionaries of the Arab security and intelligence regimes to refer to the demonstrators. They were thus called “infiltrators”, “conspirers”, “armed elements” and “demons,” just because they stood fast and demanded their rights and freedoms in the face of the arms of the regimes' “thugs” and “brutes.” In Libya, Gaddafi's brigades are still killing the people, waging attacks and shedding innocent blood. Gaddafi is still insisting that the people must surrender to him and his sons, or else let them all exit his land since he will not step down after he has been governing the country for 42 years. In Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh is insisting on maintaining the presidential chair, even as he is ill, being treated outside his country and appearing with a burned face, wrapped hands and acute injuries in the heart and lungs. Moreover, Saleh is still maneuvering around all the initiatives although he has been governing Yemen for 33 years, thinking that Yemeni women never gave birth to any other and will never do. In Syria, the country is controlled by a bloody regime that kills, imprisons and tortures to death while claiming to be conducting reforms. It is bringing misery, ignoring all the voices and following the cravings for murder and oppression. The protest action in Syria since last March has so far claimed around 2,000 victims among the demonstrators, and witnessed the torturing and displacement of thousands of Syrians. In the meantime, the Arab League is “silent” and “frightened,” while even its new Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi went to Damascus to express solidarity with the legitimacy of Al-Assad and his regime, not to condemn their practices. How many Fridays have witnessed the Syrians' killing, slaughtering, lynching and displacement? Should they be the object of genocide before the world acts to support and protect them from the fist of Al-Assad, his party, his security apparatuses and the thugs of his regime? The Arab silence is the accomplice of Al-Assad's regime, its policies and brutal actions. If this is not the case, why are the Arab governments not moving to support the “peaceful” demonstrators who are facing a murderous regime and the lethal and oppressive military machine?! Amid the “shameful” official Arab silence toward the incidents in Syria, a “shy” statement was issued by the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, calling on Syria to immediately stop the bloodshed and launch real reforms, expressing serious concerns and deep sorrow toward the excessive use of power in this country. The popular civil action in the Arab countries is worthy of praise and a tip of the hat to show respect to “peaceful” populations who are standing in the face of the killing machines and the orders of the murderers to achieve their legitimate demands. Certainly, the Gulf statement, and despite its importance, will have no impact in light of the Arab frailty, the weakness of its formulation and expressions and the fact that it avoided any direct criticisms against Al-Assad's regime. However, it might have an impact if it were to be adopted by the Arab League, and rendered a starting point and an active nucleus for a joint Arab decision surpassing Western action. The official Arab positions are “meager” and do not go in line with the requirements of the people who are condemning the massacres and the brutality committed by the Baathist regime. Moreover, the positions of the Western states are volatile and do not extend beyond calls for reform and the imposition of sanctions that had no impact on Saddam and his men at the time as much as they had unfortunate repercussions on the Iraqi people. This should prompt the Syrian opposition to carry out a serious action, unify the political vision and the media rhetoric, distance itself from the liquidation of old scores and sectarian and partisan quotas and start drafting a national honor pact based on the demands, rights, freedom and dignity of the people. This would allow the building of a state of equality and citizenship far away from narrow horizons, in order to realize the popular aspirations and prevent the Syrian structure from collapsing and entering the tunnel of chaos and unknown fate.
